How do we find out which certifications local employers want?
You can find out which certifications local employers want by reading their recent job postings and then asking the employers themselves, because a posting shows what's listed and a conversation shows how much it matters. When you talk with employers, ask specific questions. Do you require this certification at hire, prefer it, or simply recognize it? Would it change whether you interview someone or what you pay them? Would you help an employee earn it? Ask hiring managers and frontline supervisors as well as human resources, since they may see the job differently. Recent graduates and completers working in the field can tell you which certifications they were asked about.
CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, has a Certification Finder that lets you search by certification name, certifying organization, industry, or occupation, which helps you see what exists for a given role before you start those conversations. Employers keep saying our graduates aren't ready. How do we find out what they actually need? covers how to turn general employer feedback into something a program can act on.
What should we weigh besides employer demand?
Besides employer demand, weigh what a certification will cost your students, what it leads to, and whether your program can prepare people for it well. On cost, add up the exam fee, any required preparation course, the time needed to prepare, retake fees, and what it costs to keep the certification current. Unless an employer, a grant, or your program covers them, those costs fall on students who may already be working and paying for school.
On what it leads to, check whether the certification counts toward credit or a longer certificate or degree, or whether students would have to start over to keep going. On your own capacity, consider whether you have instructors who know the material, the equipment students need to practice on, and a testing site students can reach. Finally, look at who else nearby already offers preparation for the same certification. A second program in the same small market may serve students less well than a different certification that no one is offering.
What happens if the certifying organization changes the exam?
If the certifying organization changes the exam, a program built tightly around the old version may need to revise its courses, materials, and sometimes its equipment, and students partway through may be affected. Certifying organizations update exams, change requirements, and occasionally retire certifications, and your program can't control that.
You can reduce the risk by organizing your courses around the skills the job requires and treating the certification as one way students show those skills, so the core of the program still holds if the exam changes. Keep track of announcements from the certifying organization, and review your certifications on a regular schedule, ideally alongside your curriculum review.
What if employers don't ask for any certification?
If employers don't ask for any certification, your program may not need one, and building around a certification no one uses can add cost for students without a clear benefit. Some occupations rely on certifications, and others hire on skills, experience, or a degree. In that case, focus on the skills employers describe and on ways students can show those skills, such as projects, work-based learning, or a reference from a supervisor.
Before deciding, ask whether employers simply haven't thought about it or have decided it doesn't matter to them. Whether short credentials help people get hired at all is a separate question, and Do micro-credentials actually help people get hired? looks at what the evidence shows.
The Grantibly perspective
Lauren's perspective
When a program asks us which certification to add, we're more likely to start with other questions: what you're trying to understand, what decisions you need to make, what you already know, and what assumptions you're making. Only then does it make sense to decide what to build.
Whose perspective is missing is one of those questions, and it matters here. Employers, instructors, students, and graduates working in the field each see a different part of whether a certification is worth building around. We also look at the larger system, because how education, training, employers, communities, and workforce systems interact shapes whether a credential leads anywhere for the person who earns it.
